How to Stop Automatic Microsoft Edge Update?

Microsoft Edge is the default browser comes with Windows 11. Earlier, Edge browser was getting updates along with Windows operating system updates. However, this has been changed with Chromium based Edge browser. Now that the browser will automatically update in the background without your knowledge. In this article, we will explain how to stop automatic Microsoft Edge update in Windows 11 and macOS. Also, learn how to disable automatic update in Google Chrome.

Checking Automatic Edge Update

The Chromium based Edge works exactly like Google Chrome browser which is also based on the Chromium backend code. It will automatically run the update process, download the latest version, and updates your browser version. It all happens in the background, and you will not even notice the version is updated.

However, you can easily check the browser auto update is working by navigating to the settings page.

• Press “Alt + F” or click on the three dots icon that shows “Settings and more” on top right corner of the browser.
• Go to “Help & feedback” and then “About Microsoft Edge” menu.
• This will open the “About” settings page and you will see the update runs instantly. After some time, you will see the result that your browser is updated to latest version.

Alternatively, you can type this command URL shortcut edge://settings/help in the browser’s address bar and press enter. This will also open the same “About” page and trigger the auto update.

Why to Stop Auto Update?

There are many reasons to stop automatic Edge update in your computer.

• First thing is that auto update will happen without your knowledge. You may not like an important app you use changes frequently without your notice.
• Second, auto update may consume your internet bandwidth and run while you are doing other important tasks.
• Lastly, the update may remove some useful features which you rely on for doing daily tasks. Similarly, it can add annoying features that you hate without any option to disable them.

Microsoft and Google (who maintains Chromium) claim online security is the primary reason for releasing frequent browser updates. However, it cannot be the case that auto update runs every few hours and get a newer browser version without your knowledge.

1. Stop Automatic Edge Update in Windows 11

There are few options that you can try in Windows 11.

1.1. Rename Edge Auto Update File or Folder

Good part is that Edge installation comes with core Edge files and auto update files are stored separately in Windows 11. Therefore, it is easy to disable automatic update by removing the update related files.

• Press “Win + E” to open File Explorer app.
• Paste the location C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft in the address bar and press enter key.
• You will see all Edge application files arranged in different folders like Edge, EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate, EdgeWebView and Temp.

• Double click on EdgeUpdate folder to view all auto update related files.

• Select MicrosoftEdgeUpdate application file and press F2 key or right-click on it and select “Show more options” and then “Rename” option. Rename the file to something like 123MicrosoftEdgeUpdate or any name you want.

• You will be prompted to provide administrator access to change the file name. If you are already logged in with admin access, simply click “Continue” to proceed further. Otherwise, enter you admin details to allow the file name change.

• Finally, it should look like below with the changed file name.

• Now, go back to Edge browser and open the about page using the URL edge://settings/help. You should see the automatic update is stopped and showing an error. The error will look something like “An error occurred while checking for updates: We couldn’t create that component (error code 3: 0x80040154 – system level)”. Or you will see different error codes like 0x8008005 indicating the Edge update is not working.

• Sometimes, you will see the update process runs endless with the spinning wheel showing “Checking for updates”.

Henceforth, automatic Edge update will not run, and you are free from the annoying auto updates. You can anytime change the file name back to its original and update Edge to its latest version.

Note: Instead of changing MicrosoftEdgeUpdate file name, you can also change the name of the EdgeUpdate folder name. It will also stop the automatic Edge update and show you the same error as Edge cannot run the update process. However, you still need admin access to change the folder name.

1.2. Block Microsoft Edge Auto Update Endpoint URL

As per the Edge documentation, Microsoft uses the following two endpoints for connecting when updating and installing Edge browser on your computer.

https://msedge.api.cdp.microsoft.com
*.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com

Blocking these URLs will prevent Edge from auto installing updates. You can try blocking these URLs by modifying hosts file in your computer.

• Click on Windows Search or Cortana and search for Notepad app.
• Select “Run as administrator” option from the right pane to open Notepad with admin access.

• When Notepad open, press “Control + O” keys to open a file from your computer.
• When you are in “Open” file dialog box, go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc folder.
• Make sure to select “All Files” to view the files, otherwise you will not see the files in the folder.

• Open hosts file and add the following two lines at the end of the file.

127.0.0.1 https://msedge.api.cdp.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 *.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com

• Save your file and check if the automatic update in Edge is stopped with this.

You can also use browser extensions or Defender Endpoint Security to block these update URLs.

1.3. Modify Registry Entry

Similar to endpoints, Microsoft uses EdgeUpdate key in the registry to run the auto update. You can create this key in your registry with the value as 1 to check if that stops the update process.

• Click on Windows Search or Cortana and type regedit to open the Registry Editor from the result.

• Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft and right-click on that folder.
• Select “New > Key” to create new key under “Microsoft” folder.

• After creating a key, rename it to EdgeUpdate and right-click on that key. Select “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value” option.

• Rename the DWORD with the name as DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium.

• Double click on the DWORD and change the “Value Data” as 1. Press “OK” button the change the value and close the pop-up.

• Now open Edge and check whether the auto update is stopped. You can anytime delete the registry key or change the value data to 0 to get the auto update.

1.4. Try Update Blocker Toolkit

Microsoft had an update blocker toolkit for Chromium version. If none of the above methods work for you, then you can try this as a last option.

• Download the Edge blocker toolkit and open it. First, accept the terms by clicking on “Yes” button to start the installation process.

• Select the location for extracting the content.

• Let us save the content in “Downloads” folder.

• You can open Downloads folder to see the extracted content.

• Now, search and open Command Prompt in administrator mode as explained above for Notepad.
• Type cd.. or cd\ and hit enter to move the command prompt to C: drive.
• Then type cd C:\Users\<Username>\Downloads to go into the folder where you have the blocker toolkit files. Make sure to change the directory to the one you have extracted the blocker toolkit on your computer with the correct username.
• Run the command EdgeChromium_Blocker.cmd /b to see the message showing as Edge update delivery on the local machine is blocked.

You can anytime follow the same process and run the command EdgeChromium_Blocker.cmd /u to unblock the update delivery process.

Related: How to disable automatic update in Firefox browser?

2. Stop Automatic Edge Update in Mac

Microsoft is also offering Edge browser for macOS. Unlike other Office apps available in App Store, you have to download and install Edge from the website on your Mac. It works similar to Windows version and automatically update to the latest version when you are connected to Internet. However, it has a separate Microsoft AutoUpdate app that runs and ask your permission before updating.

• When the Microsoft AutoUpdate app runs, it will show you the current and the available Edge version along with the file size.
• Make sure to disable “Automatically keep Microsoft Apps up to date” checkbox.
• You can click on “Update” button and run the update whenever you need.

Though this works perfectly, the only problem is that AutoUpdate app will frequently show up which you need to close. Alternatively, you can also go to “Apple Menu > System Settings… > General > Login Items” and disable Microsoft AutoUpdate and other Microsoft items allowed to run in the background.

Final Words

With Google Chrome started the auto updates, other browsers like Firefox and Edge followed the suit. Though update for security reasons is acceptable, it does not make sense to run auto update all the time and consume network bandwidth. You can follow the above methods and stop automatic Microsoft Edge browser update.